Space Elevator

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Going up...
"In one moment, Earth; in the next, Heaven."
—Academician Prokhor Zakharov, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

A concept that gets kicked around a lot in Speculative Fiction as well as among real-life futurists. Exactly What It Says on the Tin: an elevator riding up into space on a cable stretched from Earth into orbit.

Physics dictates the placement. It would need to be placed on the equator, and stretch up in such a way that the center of mass for the system was beyond the geosynchronous orbit level. That means at least 22,000 miles up. Hope the music doesn't suck.

The best materials science we have today tells us that the only known material with a high enough strength-to-weight ratio would be carbon nanotube cable. We so far don't have the ability to manufacture it in the lengths needed. Other theoretical methods include dynamic-support, essentially a stream of magnetized bullets whose momentum pushes up the cable. The idea is surprisingly plausible from a physics standpoint, is judged as medium-hard on the Mohs Scale, and would, once the construction cost was paid off, reduce the cost of putting payloads into orbit. It's been said that we could have a working space elevator about 50 years after everyone stopped laughing. Most of them have.

Many works of fiction suggest building a prototype on the Moon or Mars (before tackling Earth), as the lower gravity makes it easier (and safer in case something goes wrong). Those suggesting Mars are reasonable, although there is a moon between the Martian surface and synchronous orbit. On the plus side, there is a second moon just outside synchronous orbit, which would be handy to use as material to make the elevator.

Lunar space elevators would be placed on the lunar farside pointing away from Earth towards the Earth-Moon L2. These would actually have to be several times longer than their terrestrial counterparts, but the Moon's low gravity means it's still possible with current materials.

These are sometimes known as "beanstalks", after Jack and the Beanstalk.

The Other Wiki has a big list of Space Elevators in fiction.

Compare Star Scraper.

Examples of Space Elevator include:

Anime and Manga

  • Dirty Pair
    • One shows up in the prologue to Project EDEN; it doesn't last long.
    • In Dirty Pair Flash, they also have an orbital ring to which the elevators connect at the top.
  • Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 has a skyhook.
  • In Gunnm/Battle Angel Alita, Zalem (Tiphares) is at the bottom of a space elevator.
  • One of these plays a significant role in Super Dimension Century Orguss; the ruins of one also play a role in the sequel, Orguss 02.
  • Tekkaman Blade goes one step further, with an entire orbital ring.
  • Kurau Phantom Memory has a space elevator to facilitate travel between Earth and a moon colony.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 00. Space elevator infrastructure is a major part of the backstory, and every global superpower has one of its own. In fact, whether or not a country or a union has access to one of these determines whether they're considered developing or developed. All three are connected to and serve as the distribution network for the power supplied by an artificial ring of solar energy collectors that encircle Earth and serves as the basis for the energy needs of the 24th century. Aeolia Schenberg, the primary founder of Celestial Being, was a major contributor to the space elevator network, and even used his contacts with the many scientific communities at the time to form an Ancient Conspiracy, the objective of which was to gain technological superiority over the forming global status quo, even coopting a mission to Jupiter to ensure that their technological edge was maintained. Even the Humongous Mecha of the series were initially developed to defend the elevators from terrorist attacks and military intervention. (Supplementary materials describe Humongous Mecha which are basically normal units turned into elevator compartments, with their chassis attached to long cables which drag them to wherever on the thousand kilometers of elevator they are required to be.) The series also makes a point out of how incredibly fragile such a structure would be. Nobody wants to fight around those things since even the slightest damage could cause the whole structure to collapse (and leave a third of the world without electrical power). Naturally, in the proud Gundam tradition of dropping large objects onto Earth, one of the towers is damaged late in the series and is forced to jettison its outer shell in order to remain upright and balanced. The damage from the millions of tons of falling debris is nothing short of devastating.
  • A Space Elevator named Spiras is built in Tokyo Bay in Silent Moebius. Shame it's main role is to get blown up so Katsumi can face her past.
  • Zone of the Enders: Dolores, i has a space elevator built on Earth, and is the main mechanism by which goods and people are shuttled to and from the surface of the planet. It features heavily in some episodes, and is a critical part of the plot in the later part of the series.
  • A space elevator extends up from the Capital in Eureka Seven, though it's only shown a handful of times. It's called the Megaroad in the movie.
  • In Mahou Sensei Negima Negi mentions that using these is a part of his project to terraform Mars.
    • A space elevator in future Tokyo is a key plot element in Negima's sequel series, UQ Holder!
  • In Legend of Galactic Heroes, the planet Fezzan is depicted with one, although it is just simply used to connect to its spaceport sited in outer space.
  • The Movie of A Certain Magical Index puts a space elevator in Academy City in Japan - nowhere near the equator. Mind you, the setting does include both magic and superscience.
  • Starship Operators uses a space elevator as an excuse to get the main characters out of the way for a very important battle - the characters are in an elevator car for the duration of the fight.

Literature

  • Arthur C. Clarke
    • He did not invent the idea, but his novel The Fountains of Paradise was among the first to promote the concept to the general public.
    • This extends to his other works, including in Firstborn which were destroyed (cut off) when the Spacers retaliated against Earth dropping a nuke on Mars, with surprisingly low (or even zero) casualty, since the cable fell and burned, while the station was floating around in orbit.
    • The final sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey (3001: The Final Odyssey) features not one, not two, but four space elevators (one each in Africa, South America, Indonesia, and the Pacific) connected by a ring. Built of Jupiter's diamond core that got blown to bits when the planet became a tiny star in 2010.
    • The Last Theorem also features a space elevator, which like the one in The Fountains of Paradise is built in Sri Lanka, far from the equator. An author's note explains, tongue-in-cheek, that for The Fountains of Paradise he moved Sri Lanka south until it rested on the equator, and for The Last Equation, to make a change, he moved the equator north.
  • Charles Sheffield's novel The Web Between the Worlds was published almost simultaneously with Clarke's, and bears some close similarities, including a near miss with the name of the protagonist. However in a foreword to Sheffield's novel, Clarke discounts any suggestion of plagiarism, pointing out merely that the space elevator was an idea whose time had come.
  • Mentioned in Robert Heinlein's Friday (the title character complains about how riding one nauseates her).
  • In The Science of Discworld books, humanity will eventually build a whole network of space elevators.
  • Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars features a space elevator on Mars and the effect of bringing one down. And by Green Mars there are several on Earth.
  • Old Man's War by John Scalzi has a space elevator. Its center of mass is too low to be physically reasonable; this is used as an indication that the Colonial Union, who built it, is hiding technology up its sleeve.
  • In Accelerando by Charles Stross, space elevators are used to disassemble the inner solar system into computronium.
  • In Saturn's Children, Mars has one giant space elevator called Bifrost.
  • Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds has a space elevator on the planet Sky's Edge; the main character gets attacked while he's riding it into orbit.
  • Robert L. Forward's various books often feature these.
    • The hero of Timemaster owns a company that made him a trillionaire largely through building space rotavators and related technology. Rotavators don't touch the ground, they are large cables that are rotating slowly with good momentum. On Earth they just barely touch the upper atmosphere and are timed to touch down in specific location every few hours so a large plane can load a capsule on to the Rotavator. It should be noted the author was the head of the Nasa team that designed them...
    • Dragons Egg and Starquake feature aliens living on a neutron star who, after getting help from orbiting human astronauts in kick-starting a scientific revolution, rapidly advance literally overnight to building space elevators of a variety of types.
  • The Great Glass Elevator enters space in Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (the sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), though not on a cable. It uses a cable with "skyhooks". One end is hooked to the elevator, the other to... Hey! Look! A convenient distraction!
  • Halo expanded universe:
    • There is a space elevator in the novel Contact Harvest. This being Halo, it of course doesn't last long.
    • Another one is destroyed above Earth by the Spartans during their fight with the Covenant.
    • The Covenant destroy the very first one in Halo 3: ODST, via the damage inflicted on in in Halo 2. The very first space elevator was in New Mombasa.
  • A substantial portion of David Gerrold's novel Jumping off the Planet takes place aboard a space elevator.
  • In the Wing Commander novel Action Stations, recounting the initial events of the Terran-Kilrathi war the Kilrathi target, as part of their attack on the Confederation base at McAuliffe (Pearl Harbor In Space), the skyhook that supports the base, using torpedoes with the newly developed capability of bypassing the massive shielding on bases and capital warships, against which fighters were otherwise mostly useless, relegating them to scouting or other supporting roles.
  • In John C. Wright's Golden Age trilogy, there is a space elevator on Earth. Phaethon zooms up the space elevator after getting back his spiffy armor, to face his trial. On his return from the spoiler, since he was exiled from the Golden Oecumene, he has to take the long way down. The stairs.
  • In a short story by Iain M. Banks, terrorists give the protagonist a powerful Culture—built handgun that only he can use, and try to blackmail him into taking out a government target with it. While contemplating what the weapon is capable of, the protagonist imagines using it to destroy the planet's Space Elevator, trying to picture the resulting destruction and idly wondering whether it would come crashing to the ground or simply spin off into space.
  • A space elevator enables the premise of Frank Schätzing's novel Limit. (Which is: The worthwhile mining for Helium-3 on the moon.)
  • In the Uplift novel Sundiver, Earth had two of these by the 23rd century. They're named Vanilla Needle and Chocolate Needle.


Live-Action TV


Tabletop Games

  • The Tabletop RPG Jovian Chronicles has one on Mars, but the one on Earth proved to be too difficult to engineer in the high terrestrial gravity and thick atmosphere. Earth uses "Skyhooks", shorter versions, where the top is in low orbit, and the bottom flies in the stratosphere, moving cargo between high-altitude planes and low-flying spacecraft.
  • The 2300 AD Tabletop RPG had the "Beanstalk" adventure, which involved a Space Elevator on the planet Beta Canum Venaticorum.
  • Transhuman Space has the Olympus Project in Kenya, although it hasn't been completed yet. As in other examples, there's a completed elevator on Mars, linking Diemos to New Shanghai.
  • A Shadowrun supplement had several Mega Corps planning to build a Space Elevator atop Mt. Kilimanjaro, over objections of some of the most powerful nature spirits in Africa.
  • In Stars Without Number included in Orbital Lifters fitting (along with more conventional equipment for shuttling large amount of cargo), and it's TL4 (common interstellar) hardware, but of course it requires sitting on a geostationary orbit over the spaceport.

Video Games

  • Mega Man X 8's problems eventually revolve around a Space Elevator. Sort of. As is typical for a Mega Man game, an entire level is built around riding the Space Elevator to the top. Oddly enough, the writer's couldn't seem to figure out exactly what they wanted their Space Elevator to be. In the opening intro, it's depicted as some kind of tubular, spiraling roadway, with car-type vehicles driving up and down the outside of the tube (one explodes and falls into the park, setting off the story). Later, X, Zero and Axl take an actual elevator up to the top, which takes about five minutes and involves enemies dropping in from above, when any movement inside an actual elevator would be difficult due to zero-g and the fact that the car would have to be sealed...
  • In Xenosaga we see an Orbital Elevator over the planet of Fifth Jerusalem.
  • The Helghast in Killzone 3 have one that works on laser propulsion.
  • F-Zero GX has a track set on a space elevator, Cosmo Terminal: Trident. It's particularly difficult as it is a network of three paths, none of which have safety railings. For the first two laps the track is constantly moving upwards, providing a disorienting background to distract you, and only on the final lap does the elevator reach the spaceport at the top.
  • In Civilization 4 the Space Elevator is a wonder you can build, which boosts by half production on space ship parts required to win the Alpha Centauri victory.
  • It's also a wonder in Call to Power, where it creates a space city above the city containing the wonder, and allows units to travel between the two without the drawbacks of other space launch methods.
  • It is also a Secret Project in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (the movie for which provides the page quote), which doubles the energy (i.e. cash flow) at the base you build it at, doubles the speed with which all your bases can build orbital improvements (satellites and space installations that give your whole faction benefits), and lifts the requirement that any base building an orbital improvement have an Aerospace Complex. Since orbital improvements are pretty darn awesome (Orbital Hydroponics Stations give each base +1 Nutrients to grow faster; Orbital Power Transmitters give you +1 extra Energy per base, potentially giving you loads of cash; Nessus Mining Stations give you +1 Minerals per base, letting you build stuff faster; and Orbital Defense Pods give you a 50% chance of stopping Planet Busters), provided you haven't pissed off Planet too much, so this is kind of a big deal.
  • In Halo 2, the New Mombassa Space Elevator is destroyed when Regret's Assault Carrier enters slipspace within the city itself. In Halo 3, the Master Chief must fight his way along a highway in the same region, around which scattered bits of the elevator can be seen. One Marine mentions it's scattered over East Africa.
    • Fridge Logic here, a space elevator works off tension, if you break it, the place above the break will float off, while only the part below the break would fall...
    • The actual collapse of the elevator is seen in Halo 3: ODST. The "cable" part of the elevator floats off into space while the massive ring things around it come loose and fall to earth.
  • La Tale has the Bifrost map, which is called a space elevator, though instead of riding an actual elevator up, you have to climb the entire thing.
  • In Dystopia, there are five space elevators located on or very near the equator, and four of them are the traditional kind. However, one of those is anchored to Atlantis, a free floating city in the Atlantic Ocean. It has yet to be explained how the elevator maintains geosynchronous orbit.
  • In Sonic Colors, this is how Eggman's Amusement Park of Doom is accessed. This being a Sonic game, of course, you eventually descend on foot.
  • The world of Syndicate Wars has one in Colombo, Sri Lanka, a Shout-Out to Arthur C. Clarke who lived there. You take a ride on it in the final missions.
  • In RefleX the boss fight against Scorpio takes place in one of these, while climbing.
  • In Infinite Space, orbital elevators are the usual method for space travelers to travel between orbital spaceports and planetary surfaces.
  • The last part of Warhammer 40000 Space Marine happens atop the base of one.
  • A large part of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown revolves around the International Space Elevator "Lighthouse". Its main purpose is to collect solar power for distribution, as well as to serve as a dock for spacecraft. Erusea captured it during the Lighthouse War, having made some BS up about Osea using it to seize power, but was eventually driven back.

Web Comics

  • Schlock Mercenary features one on Luna (The Moon). It is destroyed as a result of the Partnership Collective's sabotage of the Toughs' first flagship, causing a massive amount of damage and would cause far more if gone as planned. When the lawyer drones refuse to pay for it, the local court decided to go for punitive damages and gave Tagon's Toughs a contract to destroy one million of them. Cue a Running Gag - a snake with tie will die.
  • This Irregular Webcomic shows a problem with space elevator: two days of elevator music.
  • In Real Life Comics, Tony builds a space elevator to his space station, except it has a retractable elevator cable, making it more of a "space rope-ladder".
  • xkcd
    • A comic suggests that, since a space elevator will be built 10 years after everyone stops laughing, all we have to do is put Mind of Mencia on every channel and wait.
    • A later one illustrates a rather severe setback in such an elevator's grand opening.
  • In the backstory of Drowtales, the Val'Nabhan'veaka clan of Chel'el'sussoloth essentially wanted to build one of those, though instead of to space it went to the Surface from the Underworld. Unfortunately, the Skyhole collapsed during construction and set off a series of Disaster Dominoes that continue to resound in the present day.
  • Westward uses a space elevator in place of Space Planes or Teleporters and Transporters as a means of travel between the titular Cool Starship and a planet's surface. The elevator is portable - it is carried around by the starship, deployed at a planet as needed, then pulled up and stored on board again for the next trip. Needless to say it breaks some rules of physics and engineering (though no more so than transporters and shuttlecraft, perhaps) but it provides a unique alternative with an "analog" feel, which was the author's stated purpose for it.
  • Vexxarr as a result of failed Alien Invasion has Earth equipped with "space tethers".
    • Also, Tac-To-Trons somehow missed the "elevator" part the first time they tried.

Web Original

  • In The Pentagon War, the bigger asteroids in the Human-Centauri star system have space elevators to ferry cargo and passengers from the space stations to the surface. They can get away with it because the surface gravity of these asteroids is only 0.5%-1% of Earth's, so the elevator cables won't snap under their own weight.

Western Animation

  • Centurions has one, but it's set up more as a train, rather sensibly, as the ride is looong.
  • Generator Rex has one leading to an orbital research station.

Real Life

  • Some people have stopped laughing. There is a growing group of enthusiasts and scientists, ISEC, working on it and a full-blown annual conference.
  • A probably better idea is the launch loop. It's still largely unknown to the masses (because a strip of rotating wire is a lot less glamorous than a wire shooting up into the sky), but seems to be a lot more practical, not to mention more feasible at our current technology level (you don't need carbon nanotubes to make it).
  • Even better than those two is a Mass Driver. Which is basically a 100 plus kilometer long space gun.
    • Unless you want to send people into space - mass drivers capable of sending mass into orbit impart very high g-forces to their payloads.
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